Newey: We will be talking about an engine formula in the early part of the season

5 February, 2014

Adrian Newey expects aero to play a bigger role later in the season

Adrian Newey, the fabled designer of Red Bull’s troubled RB10, expects the early stages of the 2014 Formula 1 season to be dominated by the new V6 turbo engine (Power Unit) rules.

At Jerez last week, the reigning World Champions struggled even to run the new car due to problems in mating the Renault V6 turbo and related energy-recovery technology with Newey’s famously extreme aerodynamic packaging.

“At least in the early part of the season,” Newey is quoted by Autosprint, “we will be talking about an engine formula.”

“Reliability, power, fuel consumption – they will be decisive factors,” he added. “The aerodynamics will only really count once these new V6s have matured.”

Sebastian Vettel during day one of testing at Jerez

“But it has to be said that we are relying on the ‘power unit’ not only on Renault – there are many other suppliers.

“And each of them will have to adapt to the development speed of modern Formula 1,” said Newey.

The 55-year-old Briton is undoubtedly the most famous technical boffin in the Formula 1 paddock. He said that preparing for 2014 was “the biggest challenge of my career”.

“We had a small [development period] for such a complex car,” he admitted. (GMM)